Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Has $703,000 Stock Holdings in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC cut its stake in Ameren Co. (NYSE:AEE) by 30.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,376 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ameren were worth $703,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ameren by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,139,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,149,221,000 after acquiring an additional 334,752 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,672,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $581,661,000 after acquiring an additional 127,287 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Ameren by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,561,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $398,992,000 after acquiring an additional 39,300 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 59.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,631,580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $230,158,000 after buying an additional 984,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in shares of Ameren by 26.1% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,318,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $202,779,000 after buying an additional 479,668 shares in the last quarter. 79.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on AEE. Evercore ISI raised Ameren from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $89.00 to $104.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ameren from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ameren from $86.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Ameren from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.40.

Ameren Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of AEE stock opened at $99.26 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $90.96. Ameren Co. has a twelve month low of $69.39 and a twelve month high of $104.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Ameren (NYSE:AEE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ameren had a net margin of 15.51% and a return on equity of 10.34%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ameren Co. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameren Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This is a positive change from Ameren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Ameren’s payout ratio is 64.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ameren

In other news, EVP Chonda J. Nwamu sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.37, for a total value of $557,535.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,393,781.28. The trade was a 11.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Shawn E. Schukar sold 4,743 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.79, for a total value of $492,275.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 57,486 shares in the company, valued at $5,966,471.94. This represents a 7.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,959 shares of company stock worth $1,316,712. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Ameren Company Profile

Ameren Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois Electric Distribution, Ameren Illinois Natural Gas, and Ameren Transmission. It engages in the rate-regulated electric generation, transmission, and distribution activities; and rate-regulated natural gas distribution business.